Roughening tool for walls of cylindrical finger-gripping holes of bowling balls



June 2, 1953 F. w. BERGHORN ROUGHENING TOOL FOR WALLS OF CYLINDRICAL FINGER-GRIPPING HOLES OF BOWLING BALLS Filed Aug. 24, 1949 I l l' :1

INVENTOR. FRE W. BERaHoR/v HTTORNEY Patented June 2, 1953 ROUGHENING TOOL FOR WALLS OF CYLIN- 1 DRIOAL FINGER- GRIPPING HOLES OF BOWLING BALLS Fred W. Berghorn, Rutherford; N. J. 7 Application August 24, 1949, Serial N 0.. 112,118

'3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in wallroughening tool for finger-gripping holes of bowling balls.

The walls of the finger-gripping holes in bowling balls become smooth or glassy from the relative movement into and out of the same of the fingers of the bowler. This often causes a sliping of the fingers in whole or in part and prevents a proper grip on. the ball by the fingers of the bowler in the operation of bowling and a consequent failure of control of. the ball.

It is one of the objects of this invention so to roughen the side wall of the finger bore or hole as to avoid slippage of the fingers of the user and to enable a good grip on the ball in the operation of bowling to be always procured and, with this end in view, I provide a tool for roughening the side walls of the openings or holes of a bowl ing. ball that receive the. thumb and fingers of the bowler preferably at the portions of such walls that are engaged by the 7 inside toughskinned portions or pads of the fingers.

Another object of my .invention is to provide a device of the character specified that will be so small, simple to operate and inexpensive that it will be possible for individual bowlers to purchase and use the same.

Still another object of my invention is to produce a device of the character specified that may be utilized to roughen only the side of the finger grip hole which is engaged by the inside toughskinned pad portions of the fingers and to avoid any roughening of thatportion of thefingergripping holes or openings that is likely to touch the sensitive outer or upper portions of the fingers of the bowler.

Another object of my invention is to providea tool of the character specified which will in operation contact with the cylindrical wall along three lines of contact spaced from each other to enable guiding at two linesand roughening by the tool along the portion contacted by the other of such lines of contact.

Still another object of my invention isto provide, in a tool of the. character specified, a roughening member comprising a blade which is pivotally mounted at one of said three-lines of contact to cause pivoted movement thereof so as automatically to extend into parallelism with the axis of the hole at all times during roughening of holes of diiferent diameters and ,to .be maintained in such parallel relationship while the other two lines of contact will en age the wall of the cylindrical opening at two linesopposite to that portion of the wall which is bein roughened.

Still another object of my invention is, in a device of the characted specified, to provide a depth limiting member which will not scratch or mar the surface of the ball around the perimeter or edge of, the finger-gripping opening being roughened by the tool.

With these and other objects in view, the invention comprises the combination of members andarrangement of parts so combined as to Jo-act and cooperate with each other in the performance of the functions and the accomplishment of the results herein contemplated, and comprises in one of its adaptations the species or preferred form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a View in side elevation of my roughening tool mounted in a bowling-ball hole with its roughening blade in position for operation; and

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2- -2 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows showing my tool in the hole and illustrating in dotted lines the segmental portion of the wall of the hole that may be roughened thereby; and

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 having the upper part of the tool-casing broken away and the roughening blade moved into folded inoperative position;

Fig. .4 is a view in side elevation on the line fl4 of Fig. 3 looking .in the direction of the arrow; and

Fig.5 is a fragmentary section on the line 55 of Fig. .3 lookingin the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to these drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, I ll indicates the casing of a roughening tool of my inven-tion shown in operative position in a n er-grippin hole I l of a bowling ball l2 fragmentarily shown.

in, the preferred embodiment .of my invention shown, my roughening tool comprises the enclosing casing [0 which, as illustrated, is formed of two parts l3 and I4 comprising a tool-holding part i3.and a tool-guiding part I4, the lower portions of which are movable toward and away from each other to enable contraction and expansion toward and away from each other of the wallcontacting portions of. the tool. These parts l3 and M are, as shown, connected together at their upper ends, and as shown pivoted on a pivot i5. As illustrated, the tool-holding and guiding parts comprise U-shaped members movable telescopically in relation to each other to provide a tool casing. The casing parts are normally resiliently forced or pressed outwardly away from each other by aspring I6 woundaround the pivot 15 at an intermediate portion and having its ends Hi -[6 pressing against the inner walls of the U -sha-ped casing members l3 and I4. Said members l3 and I4 have their spring-pressed movement limited by a slot and pin connection comprising a slot 140 in the member I4 and a struckup projection or pin l3c on the member IS.

The member I 4 is preferably of a suitable width to provide corners M* I4 and the lower portion of the wall of the member I3 is suitably slitted at [3 and bent inwardly at opposite sides of said slit to provide parallel jaws I3 l 3 within which my roughening tool comprising an elongated blade I8 is mounted.

As shown, the blade is is pivoted intermediate its ends within the jaws l3 l3 by a pivot I8 and is provided at one side edge with teeth 20. The pivoting of this tool intermediate its ends on the pivot [9 enables the toothed edge 2|) to be pressed against the wall li of the hole II in vertical parallelism with such wall and with the axis of the hole H.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention, the casing blade-housing and handle of my said tool isprovided at one edge with an entrancelimiting projection 2! which, as shown, is preferably stamped out of the metal of the member I 4 and has a rounded bottom surface 2% and an upwardly curved end 2! The rounded bottom surface 2| rests on the edge of the hole of the bowling ball l2 and because of its rounded shape and the upturned end Zl prevents any scratching or marring of the bowling ball at the edges of the hole during the operation of my roughening tool in such hole.

In the embodiment of my invention shown, the roughening member comprises a relatively thin blade !8 which is movable about its pivot l9 through a semi-circular are from operative to inoperative position on said pivot (9 as will be more particularly shown by a comparison of 1 with Fig. 3. Said blade when moved into its inoperative position is preferably enclosed with the housing members 13 and I4 and is fastened in such inoperative position by providing in one of the jaw members l3 --l3 and as shown in the jaw I3 an inwardly-disposed round projection or teat 22 formed by depressing the metal of the jaw I3 and adapted in closed position to engage with a hole 23 in the blade I8 to retain the same in said closed or turned position. In this position, the toothed edge of the blade [8 will be turned inwardly and extends within the enclosure. Said blade [8 is also preferably provided with a knurled edge W to provide a better grip for swinging the blade from inoperative to operative positions. Said blade l8 has, as shown at l8", a portion of reduced width which in the operative position of the blade registers with the depressed teat 22 and thus avoids any fastening engagement between said blade and teat in said operative position of the blade. Such reduced portion l8 also allows sufficient freedom of pivotal movement to enable said blade to automatically assume a vertical position in parallelism with the wall of the hole within which the tool is inserted.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention the teeth 20 are preferably buttress-shaped and incline downwardly to permit a ready roughening of the wall surface while avoiding any excessive removal of material or cutting. This type of teeth also permits a ready slippage of the tool in an upward direction and also avoids any embedding of the same into the material of the wall.

In operation, assuming the tool to be in position shown in Fig. 3, the bottom I8 of the blade is swung inwardly to permit initial pivotal movement to enable the top portion of the blade to be engaged by the fingers to swing same about its pivot and to cause it to assume the position shown in Fig. 1. The members l8 and M are then pressed by the fingers of the user inwardly toward each other to contract the width of the lower portion of the casing members into the position shown in dot and dash lines in Figs. 1 and 3. When so contracted, the tool may be readily inserted into the hole ll of the bowling ball I2. Upon release by the fingers of the user of the members I3 and Hi, the spring l6 will force the jaws and blade outwardly to cause the teeth of the blade to engage the wall Il Because of pivoting of the blade the edge of the blade having these teeth will always extend in parallel registration with the wall N and at the same time the corners I l -M of the 'member M will engage the wall of the hole II at two spaced points opposite to the line of engagement of the blade with the wall.

The stop 2! will limit the insertion movement and upon a turning of the tool by the hand of the user, the wall H may be roughened along a segment li as shown in Fig. 2. The movement of the tool is thus adapted to roughen a specific part of the wall of the hole and the user may gauge this part so as to roughen only that part of the wall of the hole that is engaged by the tough inner or pad portion of his fingers and to avoid a scraping or roughening of the rear portions of the holes which in the operation of bowling are positioned opposite to and likely to engage the outer or back and more sensitive portions of the fingers of the bowler.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A roughening tool for walls of cylindrical finger-gripping holes of bowling balls embodying, in combination, an elongated blade-mounting housing comprising two parts pivotally connected together at their upper. ends to form a handle and having at the lower end of one of said two parts a blade member provided with wallroughening teeth at one edge, pivot means for mounting said blade member to project outwardly from said housing and to cause the blade edge having said wall-roughening teeth to extend in a plane parallel with one edge of the housing, said housing having in the other of said two'parts an integral blade-guiding portion projecting in a direction opposite to said blade and provided with a blunt guiding surface extending in a direction parallel with said blade member, an expansion spring mounted in said housing for normally moving the two parts thereof away from each other, and stop means for limiting said spring-actuated movement, whereby said parts are manually contractible and are adapted upon said spring expansion to cause contact of said toothed edge of the blade with a wall-surface portion of a hole at one side of the axis of the casing and to cause contact of said blunt guiding surface of the said housing with a wall portion of the hole at the opposite side of said axis thereof.

2. A roughening-tool for walls of cylindrical finger-gripping holes of bowling balls as claimed in claim 1, in which the blade-mounting member comprises a pair of integral closely-positioned parallel mounting-jaws, the roughening blade member is mounted intermediate its ends within said jaws on a fixed pivot, and an insertion-stop member projects outwardly from the housing in spaced relationship above the upper end of the blade to limit insertion movement of the housing into bowling ball finger-gripping hole and to position the roughening blade at the lower portion of said hole.

3. A roughening tool for walls of cylindrical finger-gripping holes of bowling balls embodying, in combination, an elongated blade-mounting housing comprising two parts pivotally connected together at their upper ends to form a handle and having at the lower end of one of said two parts a blade member provided with wall-roughening teeth at one edge, pivot means for mounting said blade member to project outwardly from said housing and to cause the blade edge having said wall-roughening teeth to extend in a plane parallel with one edge of the housing, said housing having in the other of said two parts an integral blade-guiding portion projecting in a direction opposite to said blade and provided with a blunt guiding surface extending in a direction parallel with said blade member, an expansion spring mounted in said housing fo normally moving the two parts thereof away from each other, and stop means for limiting said springactuated movement, an insertion stop member projecting outwardly from said casing and positioned above and in spaced relationship to the upper end of the blade to cause the roughening blade to engage a lower portion only of the fingergripping hole upon insertion therein, said integral blade-guiding portion of the housing being provided with two blunt edges spaced from each other and adapted to contact with the wall surface portions of said hole along two lines positioned at the side of the axis thereof substantially opposite to the wall surface engaged by said blade, whereby a three-line contact is provided with the wall of said cylindrical hole.

FRED W. BERGHORN.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 201,908 Brockett Apr. 2, 1878 459,933 Lippert Sept. 22, 1891 1,287,681 Harding Dec. 17, 1910 1,411,965 Gauster Apr. 4, 1922 2,482,190 Kramer Sept. 20, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 180,245 Great Britain May 25, 19-22 

